A systems view of biological health

Section 2: Theory

39 : Life in the zone of normal adaptation: Plan A and Plan B

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The "normal" range of adaptation (that does not include emergency survival adaptations) is extraordinarily broad and multifaceted.

It includes rhythmic alternate periods of activity and rest – based on mitochondrial activity following a cycle pre-dating the evolution of Eukaryotes.

So far as your organic evolved mammalian body is concerned, the fall-back state in almost every situation (Plan "A") is to use as much energy as needed to respond appropriately to the world. When this takes place within the range of resilient adaptive capacity , then we are multidimensional beings, capable of – probably much more than we realise. There are a vast number of physical (motor), physiological, sensory, attentive, mental-emotional, and spiritual states (and combinations thereof) we can occupy and move freely between. Accessing a particular state may be through necessity or choice, or just because it happens. Very few people have conscious control over these transitions – instead "we" (the cognitive mind and the body-mind) just do it "naturally", and most (if not all) of that adaptation is carried out by the non-cognitive body-mind. If you play sports, or dance or lie down to sleep, or decide to write a poem, or read a book, or anything else – the miracle is that your body and sensory system adapt so "it just happens", and this just-happening includes the availability of as much energy in the form of ATP as needed - including the metabolic shifts that produce it (thyroxine, adrenaline, etc.) and the fuel for it (oxygen, glycogen, etc.).

Recalling the bipolar (forwards & backwards) phases of the Krebs cycle, "Plan A" is alwaysameliorated by being interspersed with periods of rest (which might be thought of as "Plan B"). Although the complex mammalian physiology is capable of doing both activity and digestion/repair at once to some degree, there is still a two-phase polarised way in which Life sustains itself, one being to absorb, rest, recuperate – in preparation for energy-expending activity. It is not possible to have one without the other, and this cycle is both diurnal and annual for both animals and plants.

The normal adaptive range - that includes alternating phases of activity and sleep - should be able to deal with the majority of situations we might encounter. In this state the body is tolerant of almost anything. Fire-walking – as practised at the Festa delle Fanòve of Castellana Grotte, a village in south-east Italy [1] - is an interesting example. During the annual fire walking ritual, medical tests have identified universal heart-beat and heart rate variability (HRV) synchronisation within the villagers and particularly between people in the same family, to the extent that you can see how related people are by the degree of synchronisation. Participant heart rates were measured at over 200bpm, indicating that it is vagal activity that is important for this synchronisation (i.e. communication between CNS and viscera) rather than the "vagal brake" causing "relaxation" (or relaxation being necessary in any way for very strong social coherence). The hearts of outsiders observing did not show significant synchronisation, even though they were apparently participating in the same ritual. Ultra-long distance correlation of HRV has also been observed in a study of individuals spread around the globe[2].

Another example (of the wide range of normal adaptive capacity) is the way that the body tolerates low background levels of infection and allows these to be dealt with by general action of the rest of the microbiome and virome (retroviruses) – and it is only when infection is not so contained that the "human" body and its immune system expends energy and responds.